It is often necessary to examine samples within environments that are difficult to access, such as within a vacuum chamber. Instruments such as electron microscopes and high-resolution optical microscopes are often used to examine the samples. After an interesting spot worthy of examination is located, it is often necessary to reacquire the spot at a later time. Precise position retaining is therefore required for relocation of a small interesting spot or feature after non-in situ processing of a sample. Current state of the art equipment for reacquiring microscopic positions is usually complex mechanically, and therefore difficult to maintain and prone to frequent maintenance. What is needed is a precise position registration system that is simple mechanically and that provides good accuracy in x, y repeatability.